The weather of June when national celebrations were at their height was but a distant memory for church goers who arrived in freezing conditions with a stiff north wind blowing.

Gorleston’s Bruno Peek, the pageant master who masterminded a 4,200-strong chain of beacons to light up the world from Tonga to Great Yarmouth on June 4, organised the service as a fitting end to jubilee year.

Uniforms, medals, chains and badges of office were in abundance as civic dignitaries came from all over the region.

Mr Peek said: “A quite dramatic highlight for me was the singing of Amazing Grace led by two pipers. There was also my favourite hymn, Oh, For a thousand tongues to sing.”

He said he would have no time to rest on his laurels after saying goodbye to the jubilee - after jetting off to Kenya on a charity mission he would be starting work on a new event in January, the details of which have yet to be announced, aiming to bring the 54 countries of the Commonwealth together.

Yarmouth Mayor Colleen Walker said the service had provided a great finale to the jubilee celebrations.

She said: “There has been a quite phenomenal turnout, including mayors from all over Norfolk.”

A special guest was the Mayor of Lardal in Norway who had accompanied traders and the choir Lardal Kantori from his homeland to Yarmouth’s Christmas fair.

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1st Gorleston Scout Leaders and scouts were honoured to be invited to the End of Jubilee service. It was lovely to see all the dignitaries in their finery. I too was moved by the bagpipes accompanying the organ to Amazing Grace. This was a fitting close to a year jam-packed with jubilee celebrations through out the world. As a Scout group we celebated the jubilee weekend in true scouting style with a group camp for 100 of us and had lots of other events through the year too. Today thanks to Bruno we brought a brilliant year to a close, thank you Bruno for bringing this to little old Gorleston.